The very first planting on our new
homestead was some apple trees and a Bartlett pear, maybe something else.
Purchased from a nursery downstate it was what they recommended. We brought them north and planted them in the newly fenced (we
did know about deer) cold and wind-swept (except from the west)
garden-orchard area in 1978. We had no amendments to add to the old worn-out sod
soil, no mulch to help the new trees get established, little water to help them
thrive, no time to devote to the new orchard, and no knowledge of pruning. And
most of the varieties weren't the best choices for the cold north. Yet many of
the apple trees lived to set fruit. The Bartlett didn't make it past the first few winters. It
wasn't its fault; it was a poor choice, especially with so little initial care.
But the rootstock, likely a seedling common pear, did
survive. It grew into a beautiful tree (see photo above). With no pruning it was
allowed its natural form and no limit to size. Forty years later it's about 35
feet tall and 20 wide. It blossoms profusely and sometimes sets an amazing
number of equally amazingly bitter, astringent little 1" pears. Cute they are,
and the deer love them, but food for humans they aren't. But that's OK; we don't
have to eat everything.
But that was the end of my pear planting until 2003 I
bought and planted a Stacey Pear from Fedco, then in 2006 a Summercrisp. They
are both small, hardy, sweet "snack" pears, though they are just starting to
give more than very small sampling harvests. Pears in general are independent
and take their own good time to fruit. But they are well worth the wait. Which
is why I do rather wish I'd continued the pear planting. But it wasn't to be --
until now. See the story below of my re-entry into the pear world. Now we're
expanding the orchard beyond it's newly expanded fenced area -- so I can plant
more pears (and probably other fruit as well!).

Pear Faith - September 11, 2017

Most
of the 30 grafts we did in May grew which is nice. A few I figure the scions
were not good to begin with (lesson learned to really look at the scion before
grafting, not after, to make sure it’s alive!). A few we thought were pretty
iffy and it would be a miracle if they grew -- a very small diameter scion
grafted with a simple splice graft (there wasn’t enough wood for a
whip-and-tongue graft) onto a similarly very small rootstock or shoot. But to my
surprise these took and are growing. Then there are a few that I don’t know why
they didn’t grow any leaves from their buds as the scion is still alive (small
scratch with a knife shows green cambium). We’ll see; there have been reports
from others about scions popping the next spring. Hope so! There is a lot of
variety in the growth between them all, of course, so many different variables,
but the rest show anywhere from just a few small leaves to more than a foot of
growth. I love walking around cheering them all on. But one in particular is
exciting to me -- the L’Anse pear.

Last September we were at a polka dance in L’Anse and a young couple brought
in a wonderful basket of beautiful medium-small pears for the snack table.
My experience with pears was pretty much limited to occasional canned ones
and a few of our first small Stacey & Summercrisp pears. Not expecting much,
but very happy to have something other than sugar snacks, both Steve and I
took one. Then I took a bite. Wow! I had no idea pears could be that good.
Nicely sweet, smooth, great texture. Immediately I went back to the table for
another one.

Of
course I wanted to know more about the pears. But this was a large lively
noisy polka party and the young couple had their three young children with
them to manage so in-depth conversation just wasn’t going to happen. But I
found out that the trees were “old” (inherited when they bought the house),
were well known in the area for decades of good fruit, were wonderfully
prolific, and they didn’t know the variety. Later, by quieter email, I got a
promise for scions and more information. Their trees are growing near the south shore of Lake
Superior.

I searched online and asked around, trying to put a variety label on these pears.
The current owners shared this information with me:
“This type I believe is either a Forelle pear or a Tyson pear. Many of the
flavor characteristics remind me of the Tyson description, however the
blushing seems to give it away to a Forelle. Perhaps it is neither of these.
They typically come mid August - 1st week of September [we had them Sept.
17]. ... the blossoms I think they are pink. Very sweet, hints of cinnamon
and other spicy flavors. ... fully matured pear trees are quite old -- I
estimate that they were planted in the 1940's - 1950's.”

This chance encounter opened up a whole new world to me. There just aren’t
that many pears growing in our area (yet!). Suddenly I wanted to plant more.
I got 5 Ussuriensis Siberian (very hardy) rootstocks planted early spring
and we grafted onto four of them -- the above pear onto two, plus a Patton and a Sauvignac (both old varieties). Then since we had extra scion pieces left we
grafted two L’Anse pears, a Patton and a Sauvignac onto shoots of our very
large old seedling chokepear. Neither Sauvignacs grew, and one of the
rootstocks with a L’Anse graft died, but the other L’Anse pears and the
Pattons have done well. It’s a long wait for fruit, and these little shoots
have to make it through their first winter still, then the many years after
that, but I’m feeling positive about them. We may never know the real
identity of the L’Anse pears but that won’t stop us in the least from
enjoying them thoroughly when they arrive finally on our homestead.

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